Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-05
MARTHA WASHINGTON
NOT AN EDUCATED WOMAN IN THE
SENSE OF TO-DAY.

She Was Poor speller and Her Gram
mar Would Hardly Pass Muster-Indis-
criminate Use of Capital Letters In
Writine-The Home Sphere.
Martha Washington was not an educated
woman in the sense Of to-day. She did not
spell well, and her grammar would hardly
staud the parsing Of the public schools.
Copies of two of her letters to her sister, Mrs.
Bassett. lie before me. They were written at
about the beginning Of the revolution. She
begins one thus: II haze Drote to you several
times, in hopes it would put you in mind Of
me, but find it has not had its intended ef-
feet" Further on she says: "The rivers has
never been frozen hard enough to walk upon
the ice since l came here" Among the mis-
spelt words Of the letter are: "Navey" for
navy, "loded" for loaded, coles for Goals,
distant" for destined, "clere" for clear,
@heare" for here, ''plesed" for pleased and
@greatful" for grateful Company she spells
occupancy" and persuaded 'perswaded."
In the fac-simile of letter that she wrote
to William B. Reed, of New York, in l7I7, l
see that she knew no other punctuation mark
than the dash. that the apostropbe was
stranse r to her. and that her writing, though
not illegible, was far from beautiful OF ele-
CANT The use of the capital was as embar-
RAISING to her as the use Of the punctuation
point, and her letters look as though the cap
tails had been shaken out of mammoth pep
,er box and permitted to lie wherever they
fell
ONE OF HER LETTERS
One of her letters. commencing MY dear
LOT oil taA t,xyf ba
Rev H. E. Hayden, of Pennsylvania, to The
Magazine of American History. 1t is dated
Mount Vernon, Aug. Z, 1884" and the YER
batiin spelling and punctuation are preserved
in th, publication Some OF the sentences
begin with capitals and some without She
writes of "My little nelly" referring prob
uhr to Nellie Custis, and Ia the same line
8, that tut is the same claver CLEVER 10y
you left him. thus capitalizing the boys
name, while she gives no capital to that of
the girl She writes Fanny that "The Cen
eral had received a letter from her papa"
dated at richmond" begins the next sentence
with small letter, and in it capitalzes
"f3rothers.n Family" and General"
A person uses his best grammar while writ
ing and lie who makes mistakes here makes
more in conversation. Martha Washington
NAV have been well educated in the school of
society and in that of life. She was certainly
not SO in books or literature. There YVES no
library to speak Of at Mount Vernon, and
Gen. Washington was more of an out-of-door
man than student. We have no record Of
his wife being reader, save that she read
chapter in her Bible every morning after
breakfast. She knew nothing about novels,
and the American monthly magazine, the
great family educator of the present, was not
yet born.
Martha Washington had, however, the best
advantages of the day. Her whole life was
spent among learned men and bright women,
lat there is no record left that she was bril-
Liant in social conversation, and you will read
in vain for the reported bon mOts of Martha
Washington. The truth seems to be That
Martha Washington thought wonian's sphere
was home, and that knitting and cooking
were more important than writing letters and
knowledge or French She is said to have
been good business woman, and to have
managed the large estate of her first husband
very ably before she handed her share OF it
over 10 George Washington Frank G. Car
pentar III The Cosmopolitan.